Tom Steyer once again learns that money does not always count in politics

But on Thursday, the results were clear. Despite the televised airwaves and Facebook flows of voters in the early-voting states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the founder of the billionaire hedge fund, had not lifted the last obstacle to joining next month's national televised debate: win at least 2% support in four elections sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee.

Or, more recently, Bob Hugin, a former pharmaceutical executive in New Jersey, whose $ 36 million investment failed to oust Democratic MP Bob Menendez from the US Senate last year.

"This is partly because Americans do not fundamentally trust rich people," said Thad Kousser, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego. "Another part of this is: they do not have that reservoir of familiarity and good feeling that some politicians are entering a race with."

But, as the fiscal data released by his campaign shows on Thursday, Steyer is a special case as a politician turned politician.

Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, earned close to $ 1.2 billion in gross revenue between 2009 and 2017 and spent $ 365.6 million on political activities over the nine-year period. his campaign. This includes the millions he has invested in political organizations that Steyer created to fight climate change, engage young voters and, more recently, encourage a reluctant democratic institution to begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald. Trump.

His one organization, Need to Impeach, has attracted the support of more than 8 million people – contacts with voters that he now uses to advance his presidential ambitions.

But the spending that has made Steyer one of the Democratic Party's biggest donors in recent years has not always translated into results at the polls. In the mid-term elections of 2014, for example, Steyer deployed tens of millions of dollars in seven races in the Senate and among governors. Only three of his favorite candidates have won.

Two years later, according to the count of the Center for Responsive Politics, he became the main disclosed donor linked to outside groups active in federal races. The Republicans won the White House and retained their hold on Congress.

"Steyer is somehow famous for spending a lot of money on lost causes," said John Feehery, Republican political strategist in Washington. "I just do not think it has an electoral district: there are only a number of billionaires who want to dismiss Trump."

Steyer campaign officials did not immediately respond to a request for interview this week.

But Steyer and his allies have long argued that his behind-the-scenes work paid off for his party. In the run-up to the 2018 elections, which saw the Democrats reclaim Parliament, Steyer boasted of having built the largest operation at the base of the country, primarily to get the youth vote . Its political groups employed 750 people at mid-term and operated on 420 university campuses.

And Steyer himself has become more and more familiar with the art of retail politics.

Last year, 62-year-old Steyer, with ash-blond hair and argyle ties, led dozens of public meetings, introduced himself to voters, and tried to become the face of voters. Trump impeach movement.

Steyer's assistants stated that he had pledged to spend at least $ 100 million for his presidential candidacy, in hopes of overthrowing another billionaire, Trump, who challenged the political conventions to win the White House in 2016.

Trump has invested $ 66.1 million in real estate and wealth in his run for the presidency, but his unorthodox campaign and his fame in the reality television franchise "The Apprentice" set him apart from other high net worth contenders in recent years. .

"It's daring enough to assume that you can come out of nowhere, have never held public office, and win the highest office in the country," Kousser said. "One person did that, but this person came with a huge reputation."

(Trump also did not fully depend on his real estate wealth and fortune to win, his money was less than $ 1 out of every $ 5 paid into his election campaign coffers in the 2016 election.)

Maryland's other member of the United States Congress, John Delaney, who participated in the 2020 Democratic nomination contest, also did not take part in the Houston debate, although he launched his campaign in 2017 and spent more than $ 19 million on its own. money.

Next month, only 10 candidates will debate the same evening: former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, Senator of Vermont, Bernie Sanders, Senator of California, Kamala Harris, the former secretary to Housing and Urban Development, Julián Castro, of South Bend, in Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, New Jersey Senator, Cory Booker, the former Congressman from Texas, Beto O 'Rourke, and businessman Andrew Yang.

But Steyer's spending spree could still bear fruit later this fall, ahead of the October debate.

It is only a survey of the requirement that candidates must register at least 2% in four DNC sanctioned ballots. On Wednesday night, his campaigners expressed dismay at the fact that the National Democratic Party had not included any eligible ballots at the polls in Nevada, a state with early elections.

The Facebook ads that Steyer aired this week echo this theme, asking Democrats from states like Iowa and Nevada to sign a "petition" containing the following message for the national party: "We we need more polls. "